Latest News

Below is the Latest & Greatest News about the game, including newly released versions and patches. Check often to see if any new version is out with bug fixes and/or new features. If you purchased the full version, you can email Support with your game ID to get the latest version.

Celebrations! The Final Release has been made! (Check it out HERE!)
Some new features in the Final Release:

• New level: 'Crypt'. The game now has 8 levels!
• Several new creatures: Assassin, Giant, Gargoyle, Fallen Angel, etc
• Define Keys: players can now define their own keyboard shortcuts.
• Steam Profile integrated Achievements (currently limited to Win64 operating systems)
• Steam Trading Cards will now drop (supported for all operating systems).

The word 'Final Release' is not the LAST relaase, but rather a transition from Early Access to Full Functionality Release. The game will be supported for a long while, and bug fixes will still be made if needed, and new functionality may still be added in future patches. However, the game is now stable after several months of Early Access testing, and many Community requested features have been added. So if you have waited for this game to become fully released, now is the time to check it out!
Have fun! :-)

Finally the new patch is here (try or buy HERE) containing the following key features

• Brand new UI layout with much bigger DungeonView game play screen!
• World Map scrolling: moving mouse over world map will autoscroll the Dungeon View
• Possibility to switch fonts and configure font size
• Possibility to choose between optimized graphics vs game play screen size
• New Skill: Backpacker -> +6 extra backpack slots!
• Stacking of items in Backpack: all Cure-potions are now stackable and Magic Scrolls are stackable per category.

Valve has now approved the Steam Store Page, everything is set and version 1.053 is now ready for launch on Steam! Check out the official Press Kit HERE and the official Trailer HERE. A couple of minor things has been fixed and added in the latest v1.053, but no major changes. So stay on your toes... 'cause soon it's time... :-)

At last, it's here - version 1.05!
50+ new spell effects, new monsters, new skills, big monster AI improvements, better balancing, improved GUI/interface and so much more to experiment with. Simply put: a whole lot better! Check out the v1.05 Release Notes Here.
The game has probably become a bit harder, but also more fun and interesting. All the new spell effects make up for lots of variety and so many different strategic choices and game rounds. When this version is released as Steam Early Access version, the Full Version link from this site will be redirected to Steam.
(The Trial version will always be here to try out for free.)

James Wilson, an enthusiast for roguelike games spent some time to review Lord of the Dark Castle. Thank you for that, James! Of course I have to share his review which I felt was, at least mostly, positive. :-) The review was made on the v1.01 version, so a lot has happened since then regarding user interface and features, but anyway I think this review catches an important part of the game's heart and soul. So again, thank you James, for your spontaneous and exploratory review style and for kind words. Here is the YouTube review to check out!


Reviewer summary: 'Play through the trial version of Lord of the Dark Castle. Excellent graphical 2d top down perspective roguelike game. Simple to start playing with easy to use controls.'

A new version of Lord of the Dark Castle is coming soon. Here is a little peek of new features.

+ New creatures: Ghost Knight and Death Knight (possibly a Necromancer too)
+ New skills:
+ Night Vision (will see minimum 5 squares),
+ Spectral (can move through walls!)
+ Much improved GUI
+ Two new "magic schools" with resist chances (that can be properties of armor):
+ Soul: typically for spells like fear/lifedrain/weakness/blind
+ Sorcery: typically for spells like Excile Creature, Expel Creature, Telekinetic Steal, etc
+ A new game environment property, called Environmental Light. Can be different for different levels. Some levels are darker than others.
... and LOTS of new spell effects, mostly implemented as "magical scrolls":
+ Scroll: Visions of the Seer (instant vision = full explore world map on current level.)
+ Scroll: Dispel Enchantment (random enchantment dispelled on enemy)
+ Scroll: Dispel Curse (random curse dispelled on self)
+ Scroll: Summon Minions (summons 1-4 minions, used by Necromancer)
+ Scroll: Enchant Weapon: +x Damage
+ Scroll: Banish Undead, destroys an undead creature (minimum 10% resist chancer, higher for powerful creatures).
+ Scroll: Blind, cannot see anything for X turns.
+ Scroll: Mark of Death. The victim dies in 30 turns (unless the curse breaks or is dispelled).
+ Scroll: Dungeon's Gaze: Target's position becomes known by all enemies until the curse expires.
+ Scroll: Vanish (timed enchantment): Becomes invisible 25 turns, clears enemy aggro, ending when moving (or breaking randomly, based on detection modifier).
+ Scroll: Telekinetic Steal: item from other creature's inventory (miminum 10% resist chance, higher for powerful creatures)
+ Scroll: Unlock: Unlocks any chest or door. (but not the final treasure)
+ Scroll: Fortify Armor, +x Protection
+ Scroll: Enchant Chest Armor: Giant's Health / Stone Skin / Regen / Armor Specialist / Survivor
+ Scroll: Enchant Gloves: Picklock / Steal / Thief / Alchemist
+ Scroll: Enchant Boots: Sneak / Lightning Reflexes / DetectTraps / Flying
+ Scroll: Enchant Leggings: ElementalResistance / Tracker / Charge / Agile
+ Scroll: Enchant Head Item: Night Vision/ Ghost Vision/ See Invisible / Scout / Alertness
+ Scroll: Bloodthirst. Does double damage during x turns. Stacks with crits.
+ Scroll: Curse of Darkness: target's view distance is decreased by 4
+ Scroll: Targeted Teleport: teleports to target square.
+ Scroll: Create Locked Door: creates a locked door on a free Target Square.
+ Scroll: Lock All, all door openings on current level are closed and locked.
+ Scroll: Weaken: Target Creature's physical attack damage is reduced by 50%. 20 turns.
+ Scroll: OpenAll, all doors on current level are opened (should only be available to monster inventory, but can be stolen by hero, used when enemy in sight...)
+ Scroll: World Daylight (affects all creatures in the world). Sets the level's environmental light to +3.
+ Scroll: World Darkness (affects all creatures in the world). Sets the level's environmental light to -3.
+ Scroll: Excile Creature, sends a creature to an ethereal prison in a parallell dimension. The creature returns after 10-40 turns.
+ Scroll: Immunity, gain immunity 5 turns against an effect type (e.g. poison, disease, fire, cold, soul, sorcery, etc)
+ Scroll: Destroy Item, destroy an item on the ground (including doors) or on creature (with resist chance)
+ Scroll: Fumble, 10% risk to drop weapon for 50 turns.
+ Scroll: Expel Creature, teleport other creature to random square (10% resist chance)

Cheers!
/Christian @ Craze Creative Studios

"Steam Store: Congratulations, Lord of the Dark Castle has been Greenlit!" :-)

After only 2 months, Lord of the Dark Castle made it through the Steam Greenlight procedure! Just a couple of days ago, I got the feeling that this could be a looong procedure. But thanks to many helpful friends and user groups, LotDC managed to gather enough interest to finally plunge through the barrier. Thank you everyone!

A big thanks to everyone that helped me during beta-testing of this game so far. Just to mention a few:
Alex Farnsworth: MANY HOURS of playtime and on-demand testing on Mac to hunt for bugs
Andreas Nilsson: many good programming hints, early beta testing on Mac
Fredrik Almkvist, Jim Andersson, Eric Trulsson, early beta testing on PC

Now the real big journey starts: to get the game out there - released on Steam - the biggest digital market for games on PC/Mac/Linux! The current Steam game vote ratio Yes/No is 55% YES! It means there is good sales potential, considering the 100 million player base. No matter how things go, how few or many sales, I can finally see a chance of getting back a part of all my invested time into this project. I started 2 years ago, and the development has accelerated since then up to, periodically, full time! Now the hard work begins: create a fine tuned official trailer, do the Steamworks integreation, etc. So everyone: stay tuned, because things are now finally happening!

My main concern lately has been the "clunky" interface. There has been a need to make it easier to use and less error prone. Another reason is the coming 35+ completely new Spells (mostly Magic Scrolls). The more advanced variants, such as Telekinetic Steal (where you actually select a monster's inventory slot and try to steal the item from a distance) would not work in my old interface with action-buttons.
So... the action buttons are now GONE! :-) Instead we have, VOILA: context-menus! Quite an obvious and easy standard solution. In fact, it was so easy that it already after 1 day fully implemented and tested, and it works much better than before. Now, you scream... "WAIT... context-menus, click-click-click = SLOOOOW game play!".
Relax. They Keyboard-shotcuts are now here! Below is the list of short cuts for the most common actions:
E -> PickUp/Buy/Equip/SwapOut
Q -> Drop
U -> Use
Z -> Wait
M -> Move To / Attack
H -> Heal (using top-most Health potion)
C -> Cure (using best matching potion)
By the way, the WASD-keys are for movement... Then, of course, there are a couple of more actions, but those include more advanced selections, so they cannot be realized with a single key-shortcut. Anyway, I believe this will be a great improvement and I know it will really speed up the development of new features.

The 1.02 version has now been out for a while, running without problems on all systems (PC/MacLinux). Soon it is time for next patch!

So what's happening? A lot! The following list if features has now been implemented and tested on main branch, to be released in next patch.

• Monsters are now using A* algorithm to find optimal path to the hero (and to items on the ground), although there is still some randomness in their movement pattern to make them slightly unpredictable.
• Once a monster has detected the enemy, it will get a bit of increased alertness (increased visibility range), so it will not lose sight of hero as easy as before.
• When losing sight of the hero, they will continue to follow the detected enemy for longer times (a random value between 5-40 turns). It makes monsters more unpredictable, and you never know when they have given up on you (unless you clear aggro with invisibility/teleport/etc).
• A general rule on monsters and items: if a monster can use an item type, it will pick it up when possible.
• All non-animal monsters can now (with a few additions/restrictions)
• use a wide range of items as well as stacking potions.
• buy items in the store, if affordable
• use skill books (only selected creatures can use them: vampires, wizards, dragons)
• use the best possible item (according to gold value): even though monsters pick up all items they CAN pick up, they will now choose to wear the most valuable armor/weapons, assuming that the value reflects quality, to some extent.
• All undeads can now use all sorts of weapons and armor, with a few additions/restrictions.
• Vampires can use: skill books, magic scrolls and potions
• All living humanoids can now use weapons, armor, gold, scrolls, potions (with a few additions/restrictions)
• Goblins can open and loot containers, and Elite Goblins can pick locked chests.
• Kobolds and Goblins, being small creatures, cannot use two handed melee weapons.
• Trolls and Ogres are too stupid to use magic scrolls.
• Wizards can use skill books.
• Dragons can now use treasures, skill books, scrolls and potions.
• Monsters use magic scrolls in a more intelligent way.
• will use Invisibility when enemy is targeted
• will use Speed when enemy is targeted
• will use Regeneration when it has taken some damage (<=80% left of HP)
• will Teleport away when <=25% health and enemy>=50% HP.
• will Teleport away when <=50% health, using ranged attack and enemy is adjacent.
• will Summon you if you are out of range

New Features:

• Now supporting Linux, tested on old hardware laptop from 2004, Xubuntu 14.04, 1GB RAM, Graphics, ATI Mobility Radeon X200 (256 MB).
• Skill update, Tracking: display directions, e.g. Tracking 'Orc' towards the Southeast.
• Current difficulty setting displayed after "Hero" in Hero stats
• Starting shop has full environmental light.

Balancing:

• 1h Axe: allowed random skills updated: can now get a random magic property "DualWield" (to be used in Sword+Axe combo), tested OK.
• Halberd: allowed random skills updated: Axemaster was useless, replaced with MightySwing. Tested OK.
• Weapons with DoT effect: raised minimum chance (10% -> 20%) to proc.
• Stinging Poison: skill description updated and duration changed from 1-15 -> 5-20.
• Web trap: for every failed attempt, the percent chance to break free is increased by 1.

Bug fixes:

• Critical: memory leak on sound effect threads fixed.
• Using the skill Stinging Poison without weapon in hand caused the game to crash.
• Sound effects: item sound effects are now only played when hero equips/wears/swaps an item. NOT when walking OVER it, nor when the hero is "given" an item.
• Dual Wield skill description improved.
• Life Steal skill description improved.
• Weapons with HP Regen, did not take effect.
• Exploit: If hero is in sneak mode from a worn item, and that item is removed, the hero stays permantently in sneak mode until attacking.
• Creature using a weapon with both skill(s) and effect(s) only displays "Item Skills" on the Creature Properties panel. Changed-> Creature Properties panel now displays: "Skills and Effects from worn item(s)".
• Event log displayed "Pick up Stairs Down?" when entering the exit. Removed this text.
• Bow is too powerful and cheap. Adjusted value. Ammo/durability: previously, 10-20 arrows (+15 arrows with Bow Master skill). Changed to: 4-12 arrows (+8 arrows with Bow Master skill).
• Mac Only: Out-of-memory error, thread allocation, after repeatedly pressing Restart button in-game.
• Clicking on World Minimap translated to slightly wrong coordinates.
• Event log did not always autoscroll.
• Potential crash when clicking outside valid map on World Mini Map.
• When standing on object that _can_be_ picked up, it should always display "Pick Up", even when the item has lost "selection-focus".
• When hero is standing on an item, moving mouse pointer to buy/pickup button shall select the item on the ground.
• When unequipping primary weapon in Dual Wield mode, it was possible to equip another non-dual-wield weapon in primary hand.
• Lantern got "converted" to torch during special use case: backpack full, 2 stacked torches in one slot, lantern is equipped. Right-click-equip on stacked torch should not work, because no space in backpack for Lantern.
• On lower screen resolutions, the red locked-rectangle around locked chests/doors is sometimes not displayed/shown because of "skipped" lines. Tested OK.
• Minimum spawn monster spawn distance from hero is now changed from 5->8 on Normal Levels.
• Dual Wielding is now more powerful and works as intended. If two weapons are equipped, a successful dual wield works as a double strike, but the secondary weapon is used during the second strike (not just primary x2), including all its abilities. This means that the hero can wield a poison sword in primary hand and a fire sword (or axe) in second hand, and both effects can trigger!

Plans for Next version, v1.05:

• More variety in the level graphics, adding random patterns on different southern-wall tiles.
• New Magic Scroll: Expel Creature (teleport other creature to random square).
• New Magic Scroll: Visions of the Seer (instant vision = full explore world map on current level.
• New Magic Scroll: Destroy Wall (remove permanent piece of wall... except outer border walls)
• New Magic Scroll: Telekinetic Steal (steal target item from monster, resist chance = 10%)
• Gem Stones: for use with Alchemy Skill.
• Spawn Traps: Floor Plates that spawn monsters.
• More Mini Dungeons.
• Balancing: less "gold spawns" at harder difficulty levels.
• Balancing: more key-less chests/doors, to make the Pick Lock skill more useful.
• Bug fixes.

Known bugs:

• Only a few low prio Known Bugs

Critical bugfix for Mac. When our Mac tester upgraded to new OS version, the game crashed at start. Issue localized and fixed within 2 hours. Thank you, Alex Farnsworth, for extremely valuable Mac testing!

Finally, version 1.0 is out!

What's new?

• Level 1-5: 3D rendered walls and doors. (Level 6-7 is irregular landscape styled, so they remain handpainted.)
• Last remaining sound effects added: Hero walk sounds on gravel, grass, wooden floor and stone halls.
• Various minor bug fixes